Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
}} Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American CGI cartoon series developed by the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in the franchise of the same name. A one hour sneak peek was released on September 28, 2012, while the official premiere aired on Nickelodeon on September 29, 2012. The series premiered in the United Kingdom and Ireland on October 1, 2012 and in Australia along with New Zealand on October 8, 2012. The show proved to be popular with both audiences and critics, garnering 3.9 million viewers on it's premiere night and hit a ratings high for Nickelodeon with boys 2-11, making it the network's top-rated premiere for an animated series since 2009. During its premiere weekend the series reached nearly 12 million total viewers. The premiere's success prompted Nickelodeon to order a second season and in February 2013, the network renewed the show for a third season. The series makes slight changes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continuity, notably Michelangelo's new catchphrase is "Booyakasha" instead of "Cowabunga" and his brother, Raphael, also has an un-mutated pet turtle named Spike. The series follows the four Ninja Turtles living in the sewers of Manhattan, where they're being trained in martial arts by the ratlike Master Splinter. Merchandise based on the series includes a new line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles consumer products, and six LEGO sets. Plot overview Characters * Leonardo (Jason Biggs) considered to be the leader of the turtles, aspires to be the perfect hero around his three smart-aleck brothers. * Raphael (Sean Astin) is the biggest and toughest of the brothers, and has little patience for stealth operations, hiding in the shadows or keeping his voice down. * Donatello (Rob Paulsen) is the reclusive, yet utterly brilliant team inventor who is able to cobble together fantastic weapons from things scrounged from a trash heap. * Michelangelo (Greg Cipes) is enthusiastic, easily distracted, loves pop culture and is always trying to get in on the latest fad. Production Viacom purchase After Viacom purchased the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise in October 2009, a press release was issued unveiling that Nickelodeon would be developing a new CGI-animated television series slated to air in 2012. Though the franchise was brought out from Mirage Studios, the company is still able to publish up to 18, 48 paged black and white TMNT comics a year. Additionally, toy products would continue to be made through Playmates and the rumors of a new live-action TMNT movie were put to rest as the company also revealed that they'd be making a film for 2012 with Paramount Pictures, though the date has seen been pushed back. Development During the development stages, details on the series were scarce. From March 2011, new details about the show were released to the public. Ciro Nieli, executive producer, cited that the series would be slightly different than past incarnations. The turtles will now have "more individual attributes" that will tell them apart, wereas previously they could only be distinguished by the color of their masks. Also, Michelangelo's traditional nunchaku would be replaced by kusari-gama. Along with this wealth of new information, a first glimpse of the show was released alongside an initial promotional image. Casting Marketing Home video releases Trivia References }} External links * Offical website * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the Internet Movie Database. Category:A to Z Category:Real world